How Gaming Podcast Legend Danny Peña Turned His Life Into A Children’s Book

When Danny Peña was a child, he would spend hours playing games at his local New York arcade before he received his first console, an Atari 2600, from his grandmother. Peña knew early on that he wanted to do something in the games industry, but he didn’t know what. He was constantly told video games wouldn’t make the money, but that didn’t stop him. Flash forward a couple of decades, and Peña returned to New York to show his mother a billboard featuring his face in Times Square – a monument to his success in the games industry, but not one that was easy to achieve. With a brand new book for children called Danny Loves Video Games about his life and career set to release this week, I sat down with Peña to chat about his road to this point.

While the 2021 Times Square billboard served as an important milestone for Peña, it’s just another in a long list of accolades for the lifelong gamer. Peña started Gamertag Radio in 2005, a time when gaming podcasts were numbered in the tens instead of the tens of thousands. In 2015, Peña was inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame, and in 2020, Gamertag Radio became the first gaming podcast to reach 1,000 episodes. In addition to podcasting, Peña also heads up games editorial at G4TVThe revitalized gaming network features such as Attack of the Show, X-PlayAnd many other famous programs. Before he made an impact on the creation of games industry content, his first business in games was a small Dominican Republic store.

The Times Square billboard featuring Danny Peña that ran in September 2021

“When I was living over there – this is like, I was in my teens already, early teens – I had a lot of Super Nintendos and Sega Genesis, and I brought this up to my mom and I asked her, ‘Hey, is it okay for us to rent out an office space, get a bunch of TVs, I already have a bunch of consoles… why not charge people to play my games? I could charge them every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, or an hour, or some of them I will rent them the games,’ and she was like, ‘I like that idea, let’s do it,'” Peña tells me on this week’s episode of the All Things Nintendo podcast. People were visiting my office to get the Donkey Kong Country. […] I had a bunch of cool games that young adults, kids… even older adults would come in and just play sports games. This was my first venture into business, in the early ’90s.

Peña’s shop was so successful that he earned enough money to buy a motorcycle. That early-’90s shop in the Dominican Republic may have been his first job involving video games, but in the late ’90s, Peña received the inspiration he needed that would lead him into his true career path in the games industry. Living in Miami, Florida, at the time, Peña got involved in the local hip-hop scene. Through that, he started listening to a show that featured interviews and discussions about music. He said, “I felt like I wanted my own show. But, it was impossible to make it happen online.” It was something I tried in 1998 but couldn’t afford and the equipment wasn’t there. “So I could not do it.”

Though he couldn’t pull it off then, Peña finally followed through on that goal around the Dreamcast launch of Phantasy Star Online in 2001. Peña put together a show called PSO Radio, which he did for a few months. In 2005 Pena created Gamertag Radio. It still broadcasts two episodes per week.

With all the success throughout Peña’s career, his cousin, Mr. Luna, and his cousin’s wife, Mrs. Ani, contacted him. Since the late 1990s, Pena and Mr. Luna have published children’s literature under the company 2 Quality People. Mr. Luna told Peña that he wanted to create a children’s book based on his life and career, and Peña was immediately on board. The result is Danny Loves Video Games: Based on the True Story of Danny Peña, a children’s book that recalls Peña’s lifelong experience from his childhood New York arcade all the way up to his continued success in 2022.

“There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to do it,” Peña says. One is to show parents that dreams can come true. Instead of parents being rude to their kids when they say things like “Oh, I want that,” Parents might respond, “Oh, no, it’s a waste of time.” This doesn’t make the money. They are discouraged. They need to be educated and shown that dreams can come true. This worked for me. It was also a way to inspire and help children to realize their dreams.

Beyond those goals (and entertainment to all who read it, of course), Peña has grander ambitions for what Danny Loves Video Games can accomplish. “I also did this in Spanish,” says he. It has been my goal since childhood: To get more Latinos into the gaming industry. You could work as a journalist or content creator or do anything related to games. They are very underrepresented in this industry, and I urge them to join me. Many of them aren’t sure what to do or how to accomplish it. They don’t even have the right resources. That’s why I set out to help them get involved in this industry, both here in America and Latin America.

This book is bright, cheerful, and inspiring. It serves as a great overview of Peña’s story, even referencing some of his interviews with icons like Keanu Reeves, Danny Trejo, Snoop Dogg, and more. It portrays Peña’s career in a digestible and easy-to-understand way and delivers the important message of working hard and being persistent to achieve your dreams. 

“I never gave up, even during the most difficult times in my life, which there’s been a couple throughout the years that I almost quit,” Peña says when talking about what all this success means to him. I am grateful for the good people that have impacted my life, like Peter Toledo and Parris Llly. [Gamertag Radio]My family and co-hosts have always supported me, as well. Keep going. Keep going. That is why I’ve kept going through all of these years. It was something I believed in. It’s been something I believed since childhood that this would lead to something great. “Something big.”

Even with more than two decades of content creation under his belt, Peña is feeling as refreshed and happy as ever with his career. He says, “I don’t feel fatigued; I don’t feel tired. I don’t feel burned out. I have a lot of fun creating content and sharing it with my community.” I feel that this is only the beginning. Even after twenty-something years of experience, I feel that there is still more to come.

Danny Loves Video GamesThe book will arrive on September 15. You can purchase the book at Barnes & Noble or Amazon (English version, Spanish version). On Thursday, September 15, at 6:30 PM, Mr. Luna (author of the book) will read from and sign the book at Kendale Lakes Branch Library. Unfortunately, it is already full. Gamertag Radio is available on all your preferred podcast platforms.